German farmer says ban on killing male chicks is 'consumer fraud'

A new law bans the killing of male chicks but some farmers say the system is not fair to the animals. Photo: dpa

“I’m a brother. Here I can be one,” is scrawled on a door at an organic farm in Germany. Inside the mobile chicken coop, with an outdoor run, are 1,500 white chickens who peck about in the straw or rest on a perch.

The brothers of the laying hens are 11 weeks old and in another nine weeks, they are to be slaughtered.